At Studio City in Macau, ‘Elekron’ brings the post-apocalyptic world to life

My very first thought while watching the opening of Studio City in Macau’s new all-electric stunt show Elekron is of the scene in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace where Anakin races against Sebulba in the Boonta Eve Podrace. The show opens with motorbikes, quad bikes, cars, you name it, filling the arena with a dizzying array of stunts, that I’m sure I missed some.

Elekron is an ancient Phoenician word meaning “shining light”, which may explain the strange spelling to viewers unsure of the pronunciation – but in the show it represents a beacon of hope in a fictional post-apocalyptic world.

While the stunts are impressive, they work within the narrative and are used to drive the story. In this fantasy world, different tribes unite to defeat powerful electrical forces and ensure their survival in a land where nature is out of control. The Mad Max inspiration becomes clear once the show comes together. A contemporary message in the age of climate change, while using all electric vehicles – this is its true success.

The show starts with guns blazing, and you are not sure where another vehicle will come from, or whether they will even fit on the 900-square-metre stage. Someone playing an electric guitar and the screeching tyres makes you feel like you are at an illegal street race. Someone who drives will instantly understand the tremendous timing and coordination it takes to make such stunts succeed. One wrong move in such a confined space and things could go very wrong.

What I don’t realise until I speak to the cast the following day is what an accomplishment this is using all electric vehicles. It is a first for the stuntmen and women performing life or death tricks when they’re used to using petrol. One stunt where double Guinness Worlds Records holder, Matt Coulter – the cast know him as the Kangaroo Kid – drives a quad bike up and across a massive wall that seems to defy gravity, is at the core of the show.

“My favourite vehicles are the quads, the ones that I built,” says the stuntman who has worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as the James Bond thriller Die Another Day, Transformers, Doctor Strange and Mission Impossible – Fallout tells me afterwards.

Why was it so difficult, I ask. “Because it has never been done before,” he says. This means customisation of all the vehicles, and lots of bruises for the stuntmen as they perfect the tricks on their electric vehicles. Coulter took a tumble twice while trying to ride a quad bike across a wall.